Category: Creativity Online

Almost three decades after its spot “Lion,” directed by Jean-Paul Goude, stormed the Cannes Lions festival, winning the Grand Prix in Film, Perrier has rolled out a remake of sorts—with everything on an intentionally smaller scale.

The original spot, an absolute classic from Ogilvy Paris, featured a woman and a lion fighting over a bottle of Perrier. Created in 1990, it won the top prize at Cannes the following summer.

See the spot here:

Twenty-eight years later, Ogilvy Paris is still on the Perrier account (after briefly ceding it to Publicis in the mid-1990s). And it just made a “Lion” sequel to advertise Perrier Fines Bulles—a line extension of Perrier that has a different carbonation process resulting in smaller bubbles.

And so, everything in the new spot is smaller, too. The woman is now a girl, the lion is now a cub. “Even the music, although intentionally reminiscent of its predecessor, is now smaller sounding,” Ogilvy tells us.

See the new spot here:

The new ad, like the old one, was filmed in South Africa—though by a different director, Johnny Green.

“With this new film, we pay homage to the heritage of Perrier,” Green says. “We sense moves that remind us of a similar story yet stay surprised and amazed and driven by suspense, until we’re rewarded by the iconic remake of the confrontation for the Perrier bottle … of Fines Bulles.”

Ogilvy Paris tells us the biggest challenge of the production “was to keep the strength of the idea inherent in this mythical movie, which is a true reference in France, while modernizing it, and adding more finesse, in keeping with Perrier Fines Bulles. The styling of the little girl, the re-orchestration of the original music, the calibration, all these details were thought through in updating this classic.”

It remains to be seen just how much the Pepsi brand will be woven into the script, but a new preview offers some clues, such as a Pepsi sign at an outdoor basketball tournament.

The Uncle Drew campaign, which cast Irving as an old man who can seriously hoop, debuted in 2012 as a five-minute online video promoting Pepsi Max. As reported early last year, PepsiCo’s Creators League studio has been working with Temple Hill Entertainment to get the character on the big screen. Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment is also involved.

The film stars Irving, along with NBA greats Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber and Reggie Miller, plus Nate Robinson, a former NBA player who spent time with teams including the Knicks, Celtics and Bulls. Former WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie is also in the movie, along with actors Milton “Lil Rel” Howery and Tiffany Haddish. Howery plays a character who convinces Uncle Drew to return to the court one last time for a streetball tournament in Harlem. The duo hit the road to reunite Drew’s old squad.

PepsiCo formed the Creators League unit in 2016 to serve as an internal production arm for scripted series, films, music recordings, reality shows and other content. Some of it is heavily branded, like Pepsi’s Super Bowl commercial earlier this month. But some content has little branding, such as a short documentary film called “The Rugby Boys of Memphis” that was backed by PepsiCo’s Gatorade and shown at the Tribeca Film Festival last year. The Creators League was also behind Pepsi’s widely mocked Kendall Jenner ad, which was pulled quickly last year amid criticism.

The Creator’s League was started by Brad Jakeman, PepsiCo’s former global beverage group president, with the aim of creating both branded content and unbranded content that could earn revenue to be poured back into marketing. Jakeman left the company late last year.

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Anyone who’s eaten at IHOP, and even those who haven’t, know it’s known for pancakes. The restaurant’s name, after all, is an acronym for its original name, International House of Pancakes.

Now, after an all-you-can-eat pancake push that ended Sunday, its moving some of the focus from pancakes to omelettes.

In the DineEquity chain’s latest work from Droga5 a man and his horse come to a literal fork in the road. The wanderer contemplates which way to go to satisfy his hunger, flip flopping between pancakes and omelettes. The answer becomes clear thanks to a gentleman off to the side, who suggests going to IHOP. After all, IHOP’s many omelettes come with pancakes on the side, leaving him no need to choose between savory and sweet. And, lucky for the hungry horseman, there’s an IHOP right there.

The “Wanderer” push is the family dining chain’s second campaign from Droga5, which IHOP announced as its new creative agency of record in November. Droga5’s first work on IHOP promoted the Jan. 2-Feb. 11 $3.99 all-you-can-eat pancake deal with a spot showing airline pilots replacing much of their usual preflight chatter with the word “pancakes.”

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Chinese New Year starts on Feb 16, and as New York-based illustrator Jing Wei says, the holiday is “about celebration and togetherness, and eating a ton of food.” Such is evident in her festive illustrations for Panda Express’ new holiday packaging.

The packaging is red, the celebratory color that’s everywhere at the lunar new year, and each piece nods to an element of Chinese culture. Paper cups are decorated with an illustration of a dragon dance. A takeout box has a dinner scene with a grandmother handing her grandchild a red envelope, because cash-stuffed envelopes are a gifting tradition at the holiday. And the kids’ meal design bears the number eight, an auspicious number because it sounds similar to the word for “fortune.” Jing Wei’s illustration for the number looks like it’s made out of noodles.

Reach Agency, a social video-only ad agency, also worked on the campaign. The packaging is in stores until late March.

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With Super Bowl LII taking place in Minneapolis, locally-headquartered dairy brand Land O’Lakes found an ideal opportunity to highlight a cause close to its heart–farming and agriculture.

Via The Martin Agency, the brand organized the “Farm Bowl,” inviting professional football players past and present to compete against Land O’Lakes farmers in events such as the Tractor Tire Change, Milk Pipe Puzzle, Drone Drop and Hay Bale Backup.

The event, which took place at the University of Minnesota, was aimed at educating and empowering students to champion nutrition and agriculture.

“Super Bowl LII offers an exciting stage to convey the importance of farming to feeding the world, and to show how Land O’Lakes’ member owners are impacting the entire food chain, farm to fork, from our iconic butter brand and far beyond,” says Chris Policinski, president and CEO of Land O’Lakes, Inc, in a statement. “Less than two percent of the population touches farming and, as the voice of the farmer, we feel an obligation to tell their important story.”